Opinions - Topics from January, 2009

Funerals are generally sad affairs and that of Donald Clark was no different.

A crowd of uncomfortable folks sat in a funeral home chapel and listened to two preachers and watched Clark's family suffer.

Their period of suffering has been more anguished and protracted than most.

Donald was buried January 24 - 66 days after he died a violent death. Donald's ex-wife and her lover allegedly put a plastic bag over his head and bashed him with a metal baseball bat.

They wrapped his body in the sheets and blanket on which he lay and dumped it in a cornfield.

Through the long investigation, neither exhibited a shred of remorse.

Donald was found on Christmas Eve - a holiday that will never be the same for his surviving loved ones.

From that point until Saturday afternoon, his body was at the state crime lab for all the testing that goes with a high-profile, murder case autopsy.

No one deserves to die like Donald did.

As Donald's coffin was carried to the grave, a bright sun broke through a dreary, daylong haze and his last rites were conducted in the light. It seemed fitting that his body, which lay shrouded and decomposing for weeks, was laid to rest in the light.

That decomposition process denied his family a last look at him - another painful thorn for the grieving.

Through the entire ordeal, Donald's sister Brenda Maddox has been a rock. Her strength has earned my utmost respect.

When all the preaching and praying were done, Brenda distributed flowers among Donald's parents, children and other family members.

One by one they approached the coffin and laid the blossoms atop it.

Their misery was palpable.

I wish everyone responsible for punishing Donald's killers had been there to see it. Sadly, none were.

This case demands swift and severe punishment. Nothing less is acceptable.

This is not a case for plea bargaining or deal making.

It is a case for making a harsh example of two cold-blooded killers who acted with malice on their minds.

Remember that as the story continues to unfold.

Do what you can - use whatever influence you may have - to make sure justice is served.

By the time you read this, the ‘little bastards’ will likely have arrived at my house.

Mr. Webster of the dictionary fortune defines bastard thusly: a person born of parents not married to each other; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child.

Nowadays, it seems more children are born out of wedlock than in it so the term bastard is used more often to describe someone who cuts you off in traffic or otherwise adds an additional challenge to your day.

In this case, the terminology was not mine but that of a friend speaking of puppies to be born of JJ my purebred, near white Labrador Retriever.

“You can’t let her drop those little bastards outside in this weather,” the friend told me on the phone one night last week as temperatures neared single digits.

Of course, I knew that and had moved JJ inside where it was warm though she is not normally a house dog. At this writing, JJ has lost interest in food and water so birth must be imminent.

The father of these pups is unknown. He may be the black dog I saw slinking around in the yard one night. Whomever he is, he has a grievous injury suffered while getting at JJ through the fence of her kennel.

When I give that account in mixed company, the women all grimace while the men nod knowingly. I wonder why that is?

I do feel some remorse regarding this turn of events and take personal responsibility for it. I wanted to breed JJ and end up with some purebred puppies so I did not have her spayed.

Now I am paying the price.

Dr. Mark Korb warned me that male dogs would go to great lengths to court JJ but I thought that penning her up would do the trick. I was wrong.

Korb related one incident in which a couple locked their chihuahua in the basement when it went into heat. Late one night, they heard shattering glass. A rottweiler had gone through the one window in the basement to get to the young maiden.

Nodding again, aren’t you guys?

With my luck the puppies will arrive on the coldest night of the year and be ugly as sin. But, I will join JJ in nurturing them and find good homes for every last one.

Those of us here at your newspaper have done yeoman’s work in recent weeks launching redesigned websites.

I had no idea going in just how complicated it would be.

Like you, I sit down at my computer and expect it to work. Most often it does. It may not do exactly as I instruct it but it almost always does something.

I’ve learned that, most often, the mistakes with it are my own.

The new websites run on an open source weblog software developed in Germany. Apparently all these computer geniuses there sat around and created it using their collective expertise.

Steve Cromer built our Apple networks after the flood of 1994 and has maintained them since. The switch to Mac was partially necessitated by flood damage. We also had tired of the proprietary system we had used to that point and the endless fees that went along with maintaining it.

As a result, I have become a huge Apple fan. I loathe even sitting down at a PC.

When Steve comes to perform maintenance, I follow him around and soak up his knowledge. He is extremely knowledgeable so I do a lot of soaking.

Steve managed to make contact with a man in Chicago who had a direct connection to the German software think tank group and that is how we got to where we are today: cutting edge, full featured, content rich websites we hope you will fall in love with. Our goal is to continue to cover this community like no one else can.

Our barnesville.com site went live last week and the pikecountygeorgia.com site should follow suit in a few days.

Since the new sites were built on sideband domains, taking them hot required ‘pointing’ various domain name servers around the world at the proper address.

From my understanding, the data which your computer acquires to show our site on your screen arrives in packets - each of which may take a different route through millions of servers before reaching your computer.

In other words, a story headline may go through Romania to get to your screen while the body copy and photo take other routes.

The pointing process was intriguing because, as it was underway, some computers got the new site and some got the old. Eventually all these servers corrected themselves and the changeover was complete.

Through it all, I learned there are a lot of smart people in this world.

It is, indeed, a pleasure to work with and observe them in action.

It is also a pleasure to have you as a reader. We take our responsibilities as your news source very seriously.

Get and stay involved. Send us your feedback and news tips. I am constantly available at news@barnesville.com and look forward to hearing from you.